KUALA LUMPUR: The government is going all out to increase vaccine registrations, by among others, roping in Pos Malaysia to drive the effort in places where the uptake is low.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister (Mosti) Khairy Jamaluddin said Pos Malaysia will utilise its ubiquitous presence by distributing flyers door-to-door in rural areas and states with low registration rate.
"Pos Malaysia will launch a special Covid-19 stamp edition to appreciate frontliners and a #BersamaMencegahCovid-19 campaign for vaccine registration.
"I have also received a request from Pos Malaysia to categorise postmen as frontliners to be inoculated in near future.
"As the vaccines become available, I'll be happy to consider the request," he said, during the Corporate Collaboration for Covid-19 Immunisation Programme launch ceremony here today.
Apart from Pos Malaysia, Khairy said, Grab Malaysia's application will also have a direct link to MySejahtera to facilitate the vaccine registration process.
"Grab will also provide updated and accurate information about the vaccination programme via its app to users.
"We will also discuss further on how we can map out vaccination centres and ensure those who have an appointment to vaccination centres can easily get e-hailing rides from their homes.
"We can utilise a similar partnership that we had during the SEA Games previously to identify drop-off points for vaccination centres," he said.
Khairy said Grab drivers will also be considered to be included in subsequent phases of vaccination which will involve economic frontliners.
Meanwhile, he said Parkson Corporation Sdn Bhd has agreed to set up vaccination registration counters in 20 selected retail stores while its customer service counters in all stores nationwide will also assist the vaccine registration process.
Besides the corporate groups, Khairy added that St Johns Ambulance Malaysia will mobilise volunteers to publicise the immunisation programme, assist vaccine registration through MySejahtera and provide ambulance and medical ambulance teams at vaccination centres should the government require them.
"They will also be doing blood donation drives in 50 locations around the country from May 28 to 30 and will open counters for volunteers to help the public register for vaccination.
"Living Minds Sdn Bhd has also come forward to offer 12 professional football players under their management as vaccination ambassadors to help spread the message on vaccination through their social media network," he said.
The message from top athletes and footballers, he said, will encourage people in the sports sectors to get themselves inoculated for the industry to operate in full force again.
"Currently, we have some seven million people who have registered for the vaccination programme and I think it is a decent start.
"But the preparations that we are doing now is in anticipation of a mass vaccination exercise which will take place from June onward." he said.